Advice Line with Sarah LaFleur of M.M. LaFleur
Guy Raz hosts The Advice Line with MM LaFleur founder Sarah LaFleur, who helps three early-stage founders navigate challenges including managing self-doubt, justifying premium pricing, and shifting consumer behavior toward sustainable products. The episode features callers from a muscle recovery soap company, an eco-friendly tick-protection sock brand, and a refillable candle business.
Summary
The episode opens with Guy Raz introducing Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO of MM LaFleur, a women's professional clothing brand. Sarah provides an update on the company since her last appearance, noting that COVID caused a 60% revenue drop in 2020, forced three rounds of layoffs, and led to store closures. Despite these setbacks, the business returned to profitability in 2022 and has been growing steadily. She also describes additional near-death experiences including the Silicon Valley Bank collapse and her lender going under in 2024. Sarah discusses how the brand has evolved to include 'power casual' clothing like blazers paired with denim, and emphasizes that MM LaFleur targets a psychographic rather than a demographic, with equal age distribution across their customer base.
The first caller, David Restiano, is the founder of SOAR, a muscle recovery brand whose hero product is a physical therapy tool-shaped bar of soap designed for use during showers. The business grew from $16K to $440K in sales following a Shark Tank appearance but has since leveled back to around $105K. David's question centers on managing self-doubt as a founder. Both Sarah and Guy validate that self-doubt is universal among founders, with Sarah sharing her experience working with a mental strength coach and practicing meditation. Guy suggests leaning on data and measurable signals to navigate uncertainty, while Sarah emphasizes finding inner calm and potentially channeling doubt into new product development rather than just sales and marketing.
The second caller, Marnie Shanahan from coastal Australia, presents Tick Socks — fun, permethrin-embedded socks with 70-wash durability sold in boxes of four for $119 USD. She targets American women aged 30-50, particularly mothers, in Lyme disease-prone regions. Her question is about justifying premium pricing when consumers associate the product category with cheap alternatives. Sarah and Guy advise reframing the price by emphasizing what it replaces — not socks, but a full season of protection. They suggest leaning into emotional value over technical specs, using video comparisons, and pursuing B2B distribution through summer camps, where parents are already conditioned to spend heavily on gear. Sarah particularly emphasizes going directly to camp directors rather than relying on expensive performance marketing.
The third caller, David Bronke from Brooklyn, co-founded Siblings with his sister — an eco-home fragrance brand offering refillable candles using compostable wax refills and reusable ceramic vessels. The business has been hovering at low seven figures (~$2M in sales) and wants to break through. His question is about shifting consumer behavior away from throwaway candle culture. Guy draws a parallel to SodaStream and reusable water bottles, emphasizing the importance of reducing friction and demonstrating ease of use through short-form video. Sarah argues that the ceramic vessel is the core differentiator and should be unmistakably distinctive in design. Both advisors agree that eco-messaging is becoming less of a buying trigger and that the focus should shift toward the vessel as a beautiful, permanent home object. Gifting and holiday sales are also identified as underutilized opportunities.
The episode closes with Sarah reflecting on her journey, noting that while anyone can be a founder from day one, becoming an effective CEO takes roughly a decade of learning on the job. She wishes she had shown herself more grace and sought more help earlier in her leadership development.
About this episode
<p>Today’s callers: David from New Jersey struggles with self-doubt as he works to grow his muscle-scraping soap brand. Then, Marnie from Australia wants to convince customers that her colorful tick-repellent socks are worth the premium price. And David from New York wants his company to end the practice of throwing away burned out candles. </p><p><br /></p><p>Plus, Sarah recounts rebuilding her brand in the wake of the pandemic and the changing fashion preferences of professional women. </p><p><br /></p><p>Thank you to the founders of Sorsoap, Tick Socks, and Siblings for being a part of our show.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you’d like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode—where Guy and former show guests take questions from early-stage founders—leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you’d like answered. Send a voice memo to <a href="mailto:[email protected]" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[email protected]</a> or call 1-800-433-1298. </p><p><br /></p><p>And be sure to listen to <a href="https://art19.com/shows/831bd173-0992-41b7-b1eb-112db904d947/episodes/deeefb24-5bd3-40a2-9347-895f54cc0f1e/embed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">M.M. LaFleur’s founding story</a> as told by Sarah on the show in 2020. </p><p><br /></p><p>This episode was produced by Carla Esteves with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella. Our audio engineer was Jimmy Keeley.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can follow HIBT on <a href="https://x.com/HowIBuiltThis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">X</a> & <a href="https://www.instagram.com/howibuiltthis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and sign up for Guy's free newsletter at <a href="http://guyraz.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">guyraz.com</a> and on <a href="https://guyraz.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Substack</a>.</p><p>See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.</p>
Key Insights
- Sarah LaFleur argues that managing your own psyche is the number one CEO job, and that self-doubt never fully disappears — it only gets quieter — making it a permanent feature of entrepreneurship rather than a temporary obstacle to overcome.
- Sarah claims that working with a mental strength coach and practicing meditation for the first time in 14 years of running her business has provided more relief from self-doubt than any external validation or business metrics ever did.
- Guy Raz contends that founders who display no self-doubt are actually the ones who worry him most, framing self-doubt as a necessary quality for good decision-making rather than a weakness.
- Sarah argues that the founder-CEO distinction is underappreciated — she was a founder from age 27 but says it took a full decade to actually learn how to be a CEO, suggesting the two roles require fundamentally different skill sets developed at different timescales.
- Guy argues that eco-friendly and sustainability messaging may no longer be primary purchase drivers for consumers, and that the more compelling value proposition is the 'new luxury' of owning fewer, better things — a framing he believes resonates more strongly with current buyer psychology.
- Sarah identifies the ceramic vessel in Siblings' refillable candle line as the most important differentiator, arguing it needs to be unmistakably distinctive in design because it is the permanent object that stays in the customer's home, while the scent is transient.
- Sarah suggests that for Tick Socks, direct-to-consumer marketing may be less effective than a B2B-adjacent strategy targeting summer camps, where parents are already conditioned to purchase large amounts of gear and camp directors are unlikely to receive pitches like this regularly.
- Sarah recounts that MM LaFleur's near-death experiences included not just COVID but also the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 2023 and an urgent capital call in 2024 when her lender went under — describing the 2024 event as the closest she has ever come to losing the business entirely.
Topics
Transcript
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